Battle at Kruger

I sumbled across this article in The New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/10/arts/television/10kruger.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1210393351-LAPkkXRD2P7UOJ/mL6nUdw

Before actualy viewing the video on YouTube:



Simply amazing.

In other news, I graduate from Trinity International University tomorrow with a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology. Believe it.

Community

Joy and I went to Taylor University this past weekend. We were there with some friends to celebrate and remember the lives of some in the TU community and to reconnect with old friends. It was a blessed weekend. One of the things that stood out to me was the importance of community, particularly Christian community. I've been out of college for four years now, and it's a sad thing to say that I have not felt any type of community that even comes close to what I experienced during college. It's sad because I need community. Since I'm talking about community, perhaps I should say we need community. But I'm first in line, and it's harder to find than I ever thought it would be.

Do I have meaningful relationships now? Yep. Are there new relationships I've developed since college that I really value? Yep. But I still have this longing...intense longing...for the community I once knew. I feel silly talking about college like this, as if I am trying to relive those glory days of my youth, and it's not that I want to go back to college as it's wanting to form community now. The truth is that life is much more lonely outside of college, and not in a clinical depression sort of lonely, but a I-am-meant-to-live-with-others type of community.

There is light in this little post. Joy and I have joined what our church calls a House Gathering. It's not a Bible study and it's not a small group. It's a House Gathering--a gathering of Christ-followers to live life together and share stories of how we are living as Christians in the world. Our House Gathering has 8 members, and it's been a huge blessing for Joy and I throughout these past four months. Every Thursday night we gather over a meal and laugh, cry, and then laugh a lot more. It's good to be involved in some spiritual and intellectual discussion, but I find myself sometimes disconnected, a rusty tool brought out of the shed and into the sun. But as rusty as I feel, and as undisciplined as I am, I am seeking community. Because I find that it is when I seek and develop community that I usually encounter and find Christ.

Final Class at Trinity

Well, the time has come for me to wrap up my time at Trinity International University. On Wednesday, I had my final class. No papers due, no exams, nothing dramatic. I walked into my class, met with students and a faculty member for some clinical supervision, and then walked out with every last requirement completed before my official graduation on May 10. As is usually the case with these sorts of things, there is a mix of emotions, and most of mine lean towards the happy side regarding closing this chapter at Trinity. Overall, I've thoroughly enjoyed my educational, spiritual, and personal development while at Trinity. All of these factors have played a role in the clinician I am as I graduate, and I am thankful for being a part of an institution which gives significant importance and attention to issues related to integration between psychology and theology/Christianity, and I am especially thankful for this as I go into a secular doctoral program.

As I look back over the 60-some credit hours and about 1,250 clinical hours I've completed over these last three years, it is difficult to pin-point particular courses which have been pivatol or life-changing. To be sure, there are ones I enjoyed more than others, but each one played a subtle and distinct role in my development, and some were instrumental in leading me to pursue doctoral education. I loved Addictions Counseling, and particularly am thankful for that class introducing me to the writings of Gerald May. I loved the various Family Therapy courses I took, and enjoyed learning about how various theories impact the direct treatment planning and direction of therapy. Multicultural Counseling was one of my favorites, and has led to my continued interest regarding racial identity development and overall multicultural awareness. Psychological Testing and Research Methods were the two courses which pushed me to consider pursuing a doctorate. These were the two courses I was least looking forward to when I began the program at Trinity, but I had them concurrently during the same semester, and when the dust settled, they were actually two of my favorites. I wanted to learn more in these areas, learn more about projective and standardized tests, learn more about good research and how to do good research, learn more about publication and presentations, and all of these point to being a psychologist, not a master's level therapist. Another class was Personality Development, as intriguing as anything, especially when coupled with Psychopathology. I was drawn to attachment theory, and was able to develop this interest into the paper I presented at a conference this spring in Arizona. It's clear as I consider my current research interests the way in which they have been molded by various courses, faculty, and clinical experiences I've had over the last two years. While it is so likely to change and develop, as most things do, my current interests lie in the areas of adolescent development as it relates to family systems, multicultural issues and racial identity, and wilderness therapy. We'll see what happens...

Tonight I have the counseling department banquet with the graduating class. While I've not developed the intimate friendships I did while at Taylor in undergrad, I have really enjoyed being in class with my peers and getting to interact with them around their lives and interests. I will be so intrigued to see where everyone ends up in five or ten years, how their interests and growth continues to develop, and how they go out an impact their clients' lives. I will miss them, and I will also miss the faculty. They have been a clear support for me and have been so willing to meet with me separately as I've worked through various papers and projects, and they have been personally invested in my desire to go on for more schooling. Not to mention all of those letters of recommendations.

While I don't graduate for another two weeks, and I will be at my internship until the end of May, the chapter is reaching its closure, and another one will open. But for now, I am seeking to rest in the present before looking ahead, and when all is said and done, I will be proud to be a graduate of Trinity.

But it's still exciting that my last class is done.

On Pouring Wine

In my daily browsing of The New York Times, I often find articles that make me think, cringe, or laugh. This one did a little bit of all three:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/21/opinion/21cohen.html?em&ex=1209009600&en=822b6125ea4a032b&ei=5087%0A

Enjoy!

The Education Continues

It's one of those rare Friday nights here in our apartment where we are actually free for the night. Just Joy and me and the dog. Every once in a while, we do something exciting: we move the sofa and coffee table, take the mattress off our bed, carry it down the hall, and put it right in front of the TV. We spend the night making some popcorn while piled in pillows and pick some movie that Joy will end up falling asleep to anyway. It's great fun. We took the idea from Over the Rhine's "Let's Spend the Day in Bed," and it really is just glorious. Toss the dog a treat, rub each others feet...

I write all this because it's one of the many things Joy and I have enjoyed in our humble apartment. While this last semester has been a little bit of a roller coaster while considering our plans once I graduate from Trinity International University, we now know what the next step is going to be. I was accepted into the doctoral program in clinical psychology at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

I had really come to think the possibility of doctoral education was out of the picture for the immediate future, but after a few phone interviews and a visit to the campus last weekend, the door has opened and we're walking through. Yes, it will be many more years of school. (People always ask and I dread telling them just how long, but it's five or six years. Thankfully, they're paying all tuition and giving me a stipend as well). While Joy and I have really loved living here in Arlington Heights and have come to make Country Glen Apartments a home we enjoy, we're very excited for this next step and move. There are indeed many details to take care of, but there's energy in those details and excitement in the plans.

Since our lease is finished at the end of May, we'll be living with Joy's parents for the months of June and July and then moving to Ohio at the beginning of August. I'm a little intimidated by the school, and all of the graduate students I met in the program commented on how overwhelming it can be, particularly the first year. In fact, one of the students had gotten her J.D. before starting the Ph.D. program, and I had tremors go through my body when she told me that law school was a piece of cake compared to the program she was in at Miami. Yikes. (Drew and Blom, I told her you would not be happy with that assessment.) As I met with several of the professors, there were multiple times that I understood the actual words coming from their mouths regarding their research, but when I tried to put those individual words together into coherent sentences, my mind was a fog. Nonetheless, the excitement remains, and it's certainly one step closer to my long-term goal (okay, very long-term goal) of getting my Ph.D. We'll see if it actually happens.

So for now we are trying to enjoy looking to the future while relishing in the present. We have one and a half months left here, and by jove, we're going to enjoy it. After all, I need to enjoy these days before the misery sets in come fall and I'm surrounded by books and research I don't understand. Plus, we don't know where we'll be living, and it just might not be as easier to bring the mattress into the living room.

A Quote for Today

"All things of the universe are miracles, each as profound as any."
--Walt Whitman

Needless to say, I love this quote. There are miracles all around us, in each moment of each day. How many have you seen today?

Oh, and I must add: Happy Birthday, Drew! You are a miracle as profound as they come.

Lake Powell, Utah

Well, I just returned yesterday from a spring break pretty different from previous ones. While I was in a glorious setting in Lake Powell, Utah, I was there as part of the leadership team for a wilderness therapy expedition with high-risk adolescent females from my internship site. The agency I intern at is a leader in wilderness therapy, which is a modality which takes (usually) teens into the wilderness for therapeutic purposed. Not only are you able to connect with the kids in a different way than when you have a session in an office, but the clients are challenged physically and relationally as they work on their personal goals in the context of a team in a remote setting. Wilderness therapy has been an interest of mine since I began graduate school three years ago, and I was excited to be able to experience what I've read about and researched. And I loved it just like I thought I would.

Our 10-day trip was to Lake Powell, Utah, a gorgeous man-made lake in Glen Canyon. We were right near the border of Arizona and Utah (and went to Four Corners on the drive there!) as part of a kayaking expedition. In total, we were on the water for 6 days and kayaked about 30 miles. We spent our days kayaking, stopped for lunch, kayaked some more, set up camp on the beach, and then went about doing our camping tasks. The girls were divided into 4 teams: cooking team, camp team, boat team, and water team. I was in charge of the meals, so I was able to have some really good discussions while cooking with the clients. Food brings people together, right? In the evenings, we had group therapy sessions and throughout the day were able to work with the girls in large group, small group, and individually. What I liked so much is that the entire trip is very therapeutic in nature, but the therapy happens continually throughout the day, whether it's a more formal talk, or you're simply talking with the client while packing tents or boating next to them on the water. And the clients get feedback from not only staff (who resemble those power-hungry adults of the adolescent world), but also their own peers as they get to know each other throughout the week. Needless to say, it was an exhausting week, but also exhilerating, and something I'd do again in a heart-beat.

Here are a few pictures for your enjoyment.